Top Asian News 4:38 a.m. GMT

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — North Korea's ambassador to Malaysia denounced the country's investigation into the death of the exiled half brother of North Korea's ruler, calling it politically motivated and demanding a joint probe amid increasingly bitter exchanges between the once-friendly nations. Malaysia responded with its own accusations, with a foreign ministry statement saying the ambassador's comments were "culled from delusions, lies and half-truths." Earlier Monday, Malaysia said it was recalling its ambassador to Pyongyang. The diplomatic spat comes in the wake of the death last week of Kim Jong Nam, who died after apparently being poisoned in the Kuala Lumpur airport.

BEIJING (AP) — The investigation into the death of the exiled half-brother of North Korea's ruler is being conducted in an impartial manner, Malaysia's ambassador to Pyongyang said Tuesday, rejecting accusations from the North that the probe was politically tinged. Mohamad Nizan Mohamad spoke in China's capital, Beijing, while in transit to Malaysia to where he had been recalled following the death last week in the Southeast Asian nation of Kim Jong Nam. Kim appeared to have been poisoned at Kuala Lumpur's international airport and police have so far arrested four people carrying identity documents from North Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — North Korea doesn't have many friends. There's China, its closest ally, and Singapore, where the North Korean elite have long gone in search of investors and shipping contracts. There are neighbors like Russia, and other nations isolated by politics and sanctions, like Syria and Cuba. Until recently there was also — sort of — Malaysia. While it isn't one of Pyongyang's key diplomatic partners, it is one of the few places in the world where North Koreans can travel without a visa. As a result, for years, it's been a quiet destination for Northerners looking for jobs, schools and business deals.

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — Plug your noses and ready your "Juche fertilizer." It's time to prep the frozen fields in North Korea. North Korea relies on its farmers to squeeze absolutely all they can out of every harvest. It's a tall order in a country with 25 million mouths to feed that is mostly mountains, hamstrung by international trade sanctions and, beyond a handful of showcase cooperatives, hard-pressed to modernize its agricultural sector. Without doubt, life as a farmer in North Korea is harsh. But there are some signs of change in how North Korea is treating its fields and its farmers.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A retired Philippine police officer said Monday that President Rodrigo Duterte, when he was a mayor, ordered and paid him and other members of a so-called liquidation squad to kill criminals and opponents, including a kidnapping suspect, his family and a critical radio commentator. Human rights lawyers who presented Arthur Lascanas at a news conference said the allegations could be grounds for impeaching Duterte, adding that his alleged role in the killings may not be covered by his presidential immunity. Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, who helped the lawyers from the private Free Legal Assistance Group present Lascanas in a news conference at the Senate, said he would ask his colleagues to immediately investigate the explosive allegations.

BEIJING (AP) — A prefecture in China's far western Xinjiang region is requiring all vehicles to install a real-time GPS-like tracking system as part of an anti-terror initiative. Traffic police in Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture announced the regulation on Sunday, shortly after thousands of heavily armed police paraded in the Xinjiang capital and Communist Party officials vowed to ramp up their campaign against separatists and Islamic militants. The vehicle-tracking program in Bayingolin will utilize China's homegrown Beidou satellite system, launched in recent years to reduce China's reliance on U.S.-based GPS providers for sensitive applications. Authorities said they will also track cars using RFID technology embedded in license plates.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Torrential rains in the Indonesian capital have overwhelmed drains and flooded roads and thousands of homes. The disaster mitigation agency said Tuesday that more than 50 areas are flooded in Jakarta, with waters up to 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) high in East Jakarta. It said the city's drains couldn't accommodate the runoff and rivers also overflowed. Floods in 2013 forced killed more than two dozen people in Jakarta and forced tens of thousands to flee their homes. The city, which has about 30 million people in its greater metropolitan area, says it has reduced the number of flood prone areas since then by dredging rubbish-filled rivers and other measures.

BERLIN (AP) — A court in Germany has convicted five South Korean citizens over the death of a relative in an exorcism ritual at a Frankfurt hotel in 2015. The Frankfurt regional court found the main defendant, a 44-year-old cousin of the victim, guilty Monday of serious bodily harm resulting in death. The dpa news agency reported that she was sentenced to six years in prison. Four other defendants, including the victim's 16-year-old son, were given suspended sentences of between 18 months and two years. The sentences were lower than prosecutors had demanded. The court concluded that the defendants had genuinely believed they were driving a demon out of the 41-year-old woman's body and that reports of "gruesome torture" weren't proven.

TANAY, Philippines (AP) — The death toll has risen to 15 from a bus crash in the Philippines, officials said Tuesday, and could climb further as many of the nearly 50 others who were hurt in the accident are in serious condition. Most of the dead and injured were college students on the way to a camping trip on Monday when the brakes on their chartered bus apparently failed on a steep downhill road. The out-of-control bus then smashed into an electric post, shearing off most of its roof. Berlito Bati Jr., a disaster-response officer in Tanay town in Rizal province east of Manila, where the accident happened, said the dead included the driver and a professor.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Five people were believed killed when a light plane crashed in flames into a shopping mall on Tuesday in the Australian city of Melbourne, officials said. The five were on a twin-engine Beechcraft Super King Air that crashed about 45 minutes before the Direct Factory Outlet mall in suburban Essendon was to open, Police Minister Lisa Neville said. The U.S. Embassy in Canberra would not comment on a report that the passengers were U.S. citizens, but said it was working with local authorities. "We extend our deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of all those who died in today's tragic crash," an embassy statement said.